No, of course not...however, we have a choice of 4 airports here all within 1 1/2 hours, so it was a no-brainer for us in the end, with family ties in UK all over the place!
We are served all year by limoges airport with excellent priced flights, in the winter it’s a 2 hour drive to mont dore for skiing and a 5 hour drive to the med in the summer…remote yes but not on a different planet!
One of our favourite areas ....to visit! We find the people in the region very friendly, and it is truly stunning countryside, but out of season it just feels very remote and too quiet. We took it out of our area of search for a property as we felt it hadn't enough options for airports, and the coast was too far to go to, certainly for a day's visit as we can do here, in S Vienne.
So we make do with visiting the region twice as much as the coast areas, soaking up the beautiful towns and villages, and adding to their economy for a short while! Very good house prices, tho' albeit you'd probably take a good while to re-sell if need be.
They are looking for remote.
I would be wary of the Creuse. Stunning yes! Underpopulated…certainly! If you must… Then choose somewhere very accessible to the A20.
If you need a place to stay, we spent a night at the Abbaye le Palais outside Bourganeuf on Friday and it was wonderful. A very nice Dutch couple run it. They are fluent in English and French. Google the website. Most places seem to be closed this time of year.
http://www.lelacdevassiviere.com/
You might have already found the website above…
Definitely Vassiviere and its environs is the best bit of the Creuse. We have a holiday home between Bourganeuf and Aubusson. That makes Vassiviere a 25 minute drive. Lots of cheap property to be had : of you look carefully you will find somewhere off a main road but this can take a bit of scouting as French addresses / postcodes are not so easy to pin point on Google Earth… So you have to go and look at your house!
I echo what has been said above - watching the changing of the seasons is a “plus” in my book : we enjoy lac vas in the summer, but equally in looking forward to a cosy fire in our house in a very quiet rural enclave of a pine forest this winter…
We live approx 10mins from vassiviere, originally we looked at the Charente but in retrospect pleased that we ended up here. The scenery is stunning, the four seasons lovely and tons of fresh air! The lake is wonderful, we go there all year round and it has fab facilities. Royere is lovely, has a fab bar and bakers. Valliere is also a lovely little village. The wolf park near Gueret is worth a visit and has stunning views. I guess it all depends on what your looking for but we will be sad to leave here next year that is for sure, enjoy!
https://goo.gl/photos/wSdWRR2sb1L1C8Kn9
The photos on the link above were taken at Lac Vassiviere this summer. During the winter it looks bleak, but comes to life in summer (like much of France!).
Try going to Auphelle on Lac Vass. There is a restaurant called L’escale which overlooks the lake and is good.
This might be your best taste of what the creuse can be like in summer. As for the November dreary gloom just try to imagine how pretty and fun it can be during the snow. I have known it be 37 degrees in May and - 15 degrees in January!
The creuse is a nice department but you have to accept that it is a poor one. There is little by way of “flash” venues or destinations. You are in France Profund…
We live about 10 km south of Felletin. Aubusson and Felletin for tapestries, Vasseviere (pretty quiet this time of year) and the uplands of the plateau de millevaches. Almost all of the tourist attractions are closed now, most people come to enjoy the big outdoors, walking and cycling. Very welcome to come and see us for a cuppa, have you got anywhere to stay sorted out yet?
Well we FINALLY made it out to La Creuse today after dropping my folks off at Limoges airport after a week long stay with us in the Charente. We headed out of Limoges on the D979 towards Eymoutiers in the east of the Haute Vienne. All the time we were gaining atitude and heading up into the hills! We pit stopped at Eymoutiers and found it to be a beautiful and wonderfully situated town. The countryside in this area is very pretty and varied. We left Eymoutiers and headed up towards Lac Vassiviere on the D43. The landscape changed gradually, becoming more wild and rugged and forested. Lac Vassiviere is very impressive and tranquil but even on a deserted day like today it is clear it is heavily geared up for tourism. Lot's of gites and cabins and camping. We preferred Lac Vaud Gelade. We both liked the countryside around the lakes and indeed it is very wild and rugged but it is obvious from the vegetation that the rainfall is pretty high. The granite bedrock must seriously impede the drainage as well, because we saw many fields full of rushes and cuckoo flower (which loves water logged soil). The scenery is stunning though and reminded me of Mid Wales and Powys. We loved the scenery between Lac Vaud Gelade and Felletin. Indeed there must be a notable change in the geology near Felletin as suddenly the verges are full of Orchids and Cowslips. We liked Aubusson as it appears to be a bustling regional centre. There is some interesting architecture and the setting of the town is attactive. Some of the shops looked ancient and unchanged from the 1970's or earlier!! From Aubusson we headed to Bourganeuf. The town looked like it is really struggling with many empty shops and it seemed a bit down at heel? We enjoyed our day out in La Creuse and are keen to return and check out the northern part. The Department has very attractive and rugged countryside and it is a lot more appealing to us than the part of the Charente we are currently in. It is an area we are keen to explore further. We would be very interested to hear more from people living in La Creuse and particularly what it is like to grow plants/food in the climate/acid soils/altitude of the area?
Paul, sent you pm message about a week ago. Not sure if you have seen it?
Martin